Make It Small Podcast

Follow indie musician Von Bieker on a quest to make it ... small. Every two weeks, Von Bieker talks with another player in the scene - from booking agents to artists, recording engineers to radio personalities. The goal? Get some help. Make it small.

I'm a member of Alberta Music, which means I get access to some great resources throughout the year. One of these was a one-on-one session with Steve Derpack, a man who has booked hundreds of shows here in Edmonton and beyond. The session focussed on booking tours and festivals, and I asked Steve if I could record our time together for this podcast. He said yes, and the results are full of valuable information (and a little bit of less valuable background noise from the co-work space where this was recorded on my iPhone).

Today I fill a gap in regularly scheduled podcasting with a shocking expose on my career thus far. Just how much music have I sold? How many people come to a Von Bieker concert? How popular is Von Bieker on the Twitter? Find out all this and more in this mini-episode of Make It Small!

Episode 4 marks my first excursion outside of Edmonton, at a time when I'm trying push my music out of town as well. Jason Grishkoff is a music blogger who created a tool to help music bloggers wade through the digital sea of submissions from small-time indies just like me. He linked up from LA to tell me how he did it, and why.

I learned a lot from my conversation with Harry Gregg. I saw his passion and optimism for the local music scene. And I made a big, embarrassing assumption that reveals just how much I still have to learn.

Here the full episode here, or subscribe with Apple Podcasts or Google Play Podcasts.

Ken Stead is many things, but her certainly is not dead. That's just the way his name gets misheard sometimes. He is a talented musician and songwriter, a skilled video producer and a big-hearted local-scene booster.